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Chaosium Digest Volume 04 Number 12
Chaosium Digest Volume 4, Number 12
Date: Sunday, November 21, 1993
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Cthulhu Literature Within CoC (Alquier Laurent) CALL OF CTHULHU
Casting for Characters (Alquier Laurent) CALL OF CTHULHU
Announcement: End Time (John Tynes) END TIME
Announcement: CoC Authors Wanted (Lynn Willis) CALL OF CTHULHU
Index: Vortext (Shannon Appel) MISC
Index: White Wolf (Shannon Appel) MISC
Editor's Note:
Several new items have been released for CoC fans in the last two
weeks.
Triad Entertainments has published Whispers in the Dark (Triad, 80pp,
$15.95). It's a set of four Call of Cthulhu adventures. This is the
third supplement that Triad has released, the first two being Lurking
Fears and Grimrock Isle (see V3.8 for a review of Grimrock Isle).
Recently out from Chaosium is the Keeper's Compendium (Chaosium, 80pp,
$12.95). This is an _excellent_ CoC sourcebook describing the books,
cults, alien races and mysterious places of the CoC universe. I've
been very happy with the CoC sourcebooks that Chaosium has been
releasing lately.
Shannon
--------------------
From: alquier@eerie.fr (Alquier Laurent)
Subject: Cthulhu Literature within CoC
System: Call of Cthulhu
Some years ago, it occured to me that since the Cthulhu Literature of
Lovecraft and others is a part of this century, it could be introduced
into a CoC game. What would happen if some players wanted to make
their characters read or use this Cthulhu Literature?
The reality of CoC is of course different than ours. Some places like
Arkham or Dunwich are real. So, what do you do with all the stories
and books involving the Cthulhu Mythos?
There are many solutions...
First, you could decide that all that literature doesn't exist. There
is no writer called Howard P. Lovecraft and no role playing game
called Call of Cthulhu. In that reality, all the places described by
Lovecraft could really exist without any modification. That reality
is exactly the one coming out of HPL's imagination, and the most used
in CoC.
But there are other possibilities. One can allow HPL's literature to
exist to a certain extent. Everything, all the creatures and places
described by HPL are real, but the names have been changed. HPL has
not imagined all his stories. Everything he has written are not
stories but warnings. He wanted to show us what's really behind our
reality and used false names to protect readers. If that reality is
adopted, the keeper has to change the name of the places or creatures,
and the players will be surprised to find inside a story some echoes
from HPL literature.
In terms of rules, one can assume that a character who has read HPL
literature and, in CoC Now, the rules of the role playing game may be
given 1 or 2 in the skill Cthulhu Mythos. After all, the more they
think they know about HPL's world, the easier they will be to
surprise. In one of my stories, I even let a player have the role of
a man in the 90s who was addicted to CoC and played with friends.
During the story, when he eventually discovered the truth about the
creatures, he had more SAN damages than the others. Just because he
knew HPL's world.
Sometimes it's better to know nothing than a little!
And what would happen if players of the 20s went to Providence to talk
to an unknown writer called HPL about strange events that he described
in Weird Tales?
It's up to you to imagine the meeting...
Have frightening dreams...
U'Jan.
--------------------
From: alquier@eerie.fr (Alquier Laurent)
Subject: Casting for Characters
System: Call of Cthulhu
In my previous articles, I told you about the use of music and local
or historical details to improve the atmosphere during a story (see
V4.8 and V4.11 of the Digest). I'll try here to talk about another
tool available to a keeper.
Casting
-------
Like a movie director, a keeper can select actors to play the role of
the characters of his story. What player had not dreamed of acting in
a story starring Winona Rider as the beautiful lady who hires the
investigators to help her to solve a dark familial secret, Anthony
Hopkins as the wicked sorcerer who has lived in the family for
centuries and Harvey Keitel as the mad leader of a Cthulhian sect?
Of course, these characters will not exactly be W. Rider or A.
Hopkins, but their image associated with a special character can
enhance the feelings of the players about it. A picture of an actor
will never replace the description of the keeper but it can add more
visual elements and fix them in the imagination of the players. Some
actors are ideal representants of evil people, cops, mafiosi,
prostitutes, farmers and even monsters. Snapshots from horror movies
can help to set up a scene in the imagination.
And, this system is so effective that it can be used in reverse. Who
would expect to find behind the charming face of Michele Pfeiffer the
wicked soul of a servant of Shubb-Niggurath? Who could trust a Jack
Nicholson when he is the only sane person in a lost village? It can
really be a surprise for the players when they discover the truth
behind the face...
The material in this case is nearly infinite: every paper or magazine
can be used by both the keeper and players. After a while, a keeper
can collect a real file of famous (or unknown) faces and then only
have to find the appropriate picture. Then, the imagination will do
the job.
--------------------
From: John Tynes <paganpub@aol.com>
Subject: Announcement: End Time
System: End Time
PRESS RELEASE
Sunday, October 31, 1993
PAGAN PUBLISHING TO RELEASE POST-CTHULHU HORROR ROLE-PLAYING GAME
"That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the
secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb and revive His
subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to
know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free
and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside
and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the
liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and
revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a
holocaust of ecstasy and freedom." - H.P. Lovecraft
Welcome to the holocaust.
Welcome to the end of humanity.
Welcome to the END TIME.
WHAT IS END TIME?
END TIME is Pagan Publishing's first role-playing game. It is set in
the year 2094, after the stars have come right and Cthulhu and the
other Great Old Ones have risen and laid waste to humanity. It's a
sequel of sorts to Chaosium, Inc.'s award-winning Call of Cthulhu(tm)
RPG, and is based in the same universe - a universe of cosmic horror,
as created by writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, in which malevolent
entities beyond the understanding of humans bring unspeakable terrors
to our world.
END TIME answers the questions that have been asked by Lovecraft and
Call of Cthulhu(tm) fans for years: When will the stars come right?
What will happen when Cthulhu rises from the depths and strides the
surface again? What will be the ultimate fate of humanity?
END TIME will show you the answers and they aren't very pleasant.
In the END TIME game, players take the roles of humans in a makeshift
colony on Mars. The group escaped the devastation on Earth and fled
to the red planet, where a scarce 1200 people comprise the future of
the human race. The Earth they left behind is a mystery; the last few
decades saw rising madness, horror, chaos, and destruction as had been
foretold in xons past.
_A dead world, alive with secrets_
The planet Mars is no haven. Relics and ruins of ancient
civilizations hold threats beyond belief. The terrible forces that
have lately afflicted Earth did the same to Mars long ago, and
remnants of that devastation linger still. Exploration of these
remains is a major part of the game, for the surviving humans are all
but doomed unless they can unlock the secrets of the past and prevent
the apocalypse from happening again.
_Threats to mind as well as body_
The humans of the Mars colony have lived through the greatest disaster
in the history of humanity. The end of the world came and left them
behind, and these survivors are now split into seething factions.
Religious beliefs have been drastically revised to account for what
has occurred, leading many down the paths of fanaticism. Others have
embraced a cold rationality that leaves them incapable of emotion.
Dealing with the strains of life and work in the pressure cooker of
the colony is the other major portion of the game - the passions of
sex, violence, and survival rule the human animal here as strongly as
ever and pose perhaps the greatest threats of all.
WHAT ARE THE RULES LIKE?
Rather than invent yet another rules system and force players to learn
it, we have made arrangements with Chaosium, Inc. to use their
tried-and-tested rules in END TIME. Specifically, the Call of
Cthulhu(tm) game rules will form the basis for the END TIME game.
This system has won awards around the world since its inception and
has been revised and tested for more than a decade. It excels at
resolving problems of physical action quickly and without
over-elaborate detail, leaving the gamemaster and players free to
role-play their characters.
Some changes will be made in the system to fit the milieu of END TIME,
but the tens of thousands of people who have played Call of
Cthulhu(tm) over the years will find they can jump right in. Players
unfamiliar with the game needn't worry - Chaosium's system is
justifiably famous for its simplicity and ease of use.
No prior experience with Call of Cthulhu(tm) is necessary, because END
TIME will stand entirely on its own. END TIME should appeal to fans
of science fiction as well as horror, or for anyone who has ever
wanted to explore what drives the human animal and what makes us who
we are.
The game's principal authors are Dr. Michael LaBossiere and Pagan
editor-in-chief John Tynes. Some of the best writers in the gaming
industry are contributing as well.
WHEN'S IT COMING OUT?
The initial release of END TIME will come in the summer of 1994. This
release will consist of three softcover books.
END TIME: A large book for the gamemaster with complete rules,
background information, descriptions of the Mars colony, campaign
outlines, sample scenarios, details of the secret history of the
apocalypses on Earth and on Mars, and much more.
END TIME Player's Guide. A much smaller book with the core rules,
player-specific background, and information on the Mars colony. All
of this information can also be found in the END TIME book, but the
separate Player's Guide preserves the secrets of the game for the
gamemaster's eyes only, and also dramatically lowers the cost of the
game for players.
END TIME Glimpses. A large anthology of scenarios for END TIME.
Paradoxically, Glimpses does not use the Mars Colony setting of the
game. Instead, Glimpses presents numerous one-session scenarios set
during the fall of humanity on Earth. Each scenario sets up a very
specific situation with pre-made characters, and emphasizes dramatic
role-playing. Each scenario is for 2-4 players, which means that not
everyone in the gaming group will play all of the scenarios. Instead,
these will become a shared body of experiences for the group - much
the way the characters in the Mars colony will have a shared body of
memories and history from the destruction on Earth.
All END TIME releases will carry a RECOMMENDED FOR MATURE READERS
advisory, as the subject matter of the game is not for the squeamish
nor the faint of heart.
WHAT'S THE POINT?
The point is simple: to explore the human condition in a challenging
and imaginative setting, utilizing the best aspects of science fiction
and horror to create a living world of malevolence and existential
despair.
Humanity is dead, but humans live on. Will we be strong enough to
rebuild what we've lost? Can we rise above our animal passions? Or
are we doomed, outmoded, and obsolete?
END TIME provides a vehicle to examine these questions and others,
through the kind of thrilling interactive entertainment that only a
role-playing game can provide.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For more information about END TIME, contact:
John Tynes
Pagan Publishing
403A N. 8th St.
Columbia, MO 65201
(314) 442-4301
America Online: Pagan Pub
Internet: PAGANPUB@AOL.COM
This press release is Copyright 1993 Dr. Michael LaBossiere and John
Tynes. It may be freely distributed.
Call of Cthulhu(tm) is a registered trademark of Chaosium, Inc., and
is used with their kind permission.
--------------------
From: chaosium@netcom.com (Lynn Willis)
Subject: Announcement: CoC Authors Wanted
System: Call of Cthulhu
Approximately a dozen new shorter Call of Cthulhu books have been
assigned over the past three months-- guidebooks to Cairo, London,
Boston, etc., a new international study of important libraries and
related topics, a summary of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and so on.
Among the topics unassigned are three I would very much like to see
done soon:
a discussion of SANITARIUMS and PSYCHIATRIC
TREATMENT from the 1870s to today
a treatment of GANGS and CRIMINALS in the 1920s
and earlier 1930s.
an examination of MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY
Writers of these books must be familiar with Call of Cthulhu, and be
able to fit in game references and scenario ideas as appropriate.
These are game books as much as they are history books.
Nominal length for such a manuscript is 35,000 to 40,000 words, or as
consistent with plans for maps and illustrations. Nominal published
length: 64 pages. Per-word fee.
If you would like to write your own book, write to Lynn Willis at
Chaosium Inc., 950-A 56th Street, Oakland CA 94608, for particulars.
Please use the regular mails. Include a sample of you writing that
has already been in print, explain why you in particular should be
trusted with one of these important topics, and sketch out how you
propose to organize the book and develop the topic.
Lynn Willis
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Index: Vortext
System: Misc
This is a fragment from the Vortext Index that I recently prepared.
If you'd like to get the whole index, either ftp to soda.berkeley.edu
(where it's available in the /pub/rpg-index directory), or watch
rec.games.frp.archives.
FROM
THE VORTEXT INDEX
VERSION 1.00
[issues 1-8]
CALL OF CTHULHU [Chaosium]
Adventures, Now:
Shadow Over Stockton, by Craig Sheeley #1 pg 12-19
Equipment, Magic Items:
Burnout, by Todd Derscheid #8 pg 10-11
STORMBRINGER [Chaosium]
Background:
History of the Bright Empire, by Richard Watts (1) #5 pg 29-34
(1) This article is reprinted in MELNIBONE (Chaosium 2901)
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Index: White Wolf
System: Misc
This is a fragment from the White Wolf Index that I recently prepared.
If you'd like to get the whole index, either ftp to soda.berkeley.edu
(where it's available in the /pub/rpg-index directory), or send mail
to almanac@erzo.berkeley.edu with the command 'send rpg-index white-wolf'.
Shannon
FROM
THE WHITE WOLF INDEX
VERSION 1.00
[issues 2-37]
CALL OF CTHULHU [Chaosium]
Adventures, 1920s:
Cannibal Express, by David Magnenet #18 pg 18-27
In the Waters of Wyman, by Stewart Wieck #4 pg 8-22
The Key and the Gate, by Chris Hind #23 pg 18-26
The Knocking Box, by Michael DeWolfe #12 pg 4-8
Campaign Design, Adventures:
All Horror is Mythos Horror, by S. John Ross #29 pg 6-7
Equipment, Magic Items:
New Spells, Books and Magic Items, by Wayne Ligon #29 pg 8-12
Magic:
New Spells, Books and Magic Items, by Wayne Ligon #29 pg 8-12
PENDRAGON [Chaosium]
Adventures:
The King Beneath the Hill, by Graeme Davis (1) #26 pg 66-78
The Treasures of Galilee, by Paul Cockburn #37 pg 8-14
(1) A generic adventure with Pendragon conversions supplied
STORMBRINGER [Chaosium]
Creatures:
The Dharzi Crab, by Stewart Wieck #3 pg 8-9
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The
old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory
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